TamsPPC – the PocketPC Blog

In case anyone of you uses AIM – you can now use your Windows Mobile 5/6 device as chat terminal while on the go. AOL has just released a new beta of its AIM client for WM (the last version came out eight years ago):

The program is available for touchscreened and touchscreenless devices running Windows Mpobile 5 or 6 – AOL currently lists the following known issues:

* Help and About not available.
* Ad space is currently filled with placeholder.
* Devices with a 320×320 display my encounter issues with resolution and softkey menus.
* Report spam when receiving a message from an unknown user is not yet implemented.
* Unknown publisher warning present during installation of application.
* Message and alert notifications outside AIM application not yet implemented.
* Keyboard entry not working on the T-Mobile Dash device.

Should anyone of you feel like taking it for a whirl - the link below takes you straight to AOL's beta page:
http://beta.aol.com/projects.php?project=aimwinmobile

In case anyone of you currently uses an older version of Opera for Windows Mobile – an official beta version of Opera 9.5 will become available on July the 15th according to the Opera Mobile team.

The benefits of the latest version can be summed up by stating that:

Palm OS users have had real-life user groups for some time – so far, PocketPC and Windows Mobile Smartphone folk haven’t ganged up in significant numbers.

Microsoft now wants to gather its mobile users in a special portal called Windows Mobile TotalAccess, which replaces the former Windows Mobile Owner Circle:

The page contains a bunch of hints for novices and quite a few goodies(free themes, ringtones, etc) – should you have a few spare minutes, give them a click at the URL below:
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/totalaccess/default.mspx

Recent user feedback has shown that many of you love to hear about the latest Windows Mobile 6.1 upgrades – read on for the full scoop.

Sprint-branded HTC Mogul (Titan)
The xda-developer’s board has proven itself an excellent source of official and unofficial ROMs for HTC-sourced devices – they accomplished truly insane feats such as an inofficial Windows Mobile 6 upgrade for the Qtek 8500. Their latest success is the leaking of an official ROM for the Mogul – available from the link below:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=402887

Sprint-branded HTC Touch (Vogue)
This essentially repeats the story above, but for the HTC Touch aka Vogue:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=403016

VodaFone V1615 aka TyTN 2
Jason Langridge reports that people using a Vodafone-branded version of the TyTN II can now get their hands onto Windows Mobile 6.1 via their carrier’s Software Update Service. People who have updated via the official HTC ROM’s released a few weeks ago have reported generally good performance(except for an annoying memory leak).

The folks at Boy Genius report that Samsung’s WM-powered iPhone lookalike will hit AT&T in a few weeks.

As of now, little mis known about pricing and contract options – stay tuned for further info as we get it.

Further info:
Omnia 8GB – specs
Omnia 16GB – specs

The Sony XPERIA X1 has been the subject of quite a few leaks recently – now it’s our term once again. Well-informed circles have provided me with the following shot from a brochure of a major Austrian electronics chain:

Cutting a long story short: the device will drop in October 2008 and will cost 800 Euros OTC. The shop will begin taking preorders soon.

As of now, this is all the news we have – stay tuned for more as we hear it!

People owning a HTC TyTN II have had huge issues due to the lack of a video acceleration driver – the issue has been covered to death at TamsPPC and other web sites.

The folks at htcclassaction.org have now posted videos showing a HTC TyTN II running some sort of OpenGL ES application via a driver back-ported from the Touch Diamond.

Even though no downloads are available as of now, give them a click here:
http://www.htcclassaction.org/driverprogress.php

Even though we currently ruin a giveaway of our own(HandyWeather from Paragon), this opportunity is too good to let it slip:

Our distribution partner MobiHand has teamed up with Microsoft and can now provide free licences of Microsoft Live Search for a limited period of time. In case anyone of you has a Windows Mobile 6-powered device(WM5 boxen are left out, unfortunately) – use the links below for grater justice! Live Search for WM Standard devices Live Search for WM Professional devices

In case anyone of you lusts for HP’s 910, it is now available from Amazon USA.

The device costs 499$ and is said to ship “within 1 to 2 months”.

Jason Langridge is responsible for the Windows Mobile track at this year’s European Tech-Ed – and is out of ideas about what topics he can cover.

In case anyone of you has any ideas, please head over to Jason’s blog and send him an email. Jason is also looking for speakers – in case anyone of you feels like taking a stab, good luck!

P.S. Do you think that attending this trade show pays out?

After not having anything to give away last Sunday(sorry), I am proud to present you this week’s giveaway!

Paragon Group has provided us with free licenses for HandyWeather, an excellent weather program for mobile devices(TamsS60 review here)! We can give away licenses for Palm OS, Windows Mobile and S60 devices, and hope to do so next Saturday.

In case you feel like claiming one of the licenses for yourself, please visit the forum thread linked below and tell us which device you have!
http://forum.tamoggemon.com/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=25

The phonereport.info team was at the official South African launch party for the HTC Touch Diamond. A higher HTC manager called Kevin Chen(pictured below) talked about upcoming Android and WM7 devices:

He stated that an Android device will be released in Q4 2008; a WM7 device will follow in Q1 2009. When asked about the partnerships with Microsoft and Google, he declared that HTC will not dump either of the two.

Get the original scoop here…

Dear Readers,
all of tamoggemon.com is currently undergoing a DDOS attack by a very intelligent person who hereby tries to express his disagreement with a review.

Please accept our apologies for the outages in the last few hours!

Tam Hanna and the Tamoggemon and brainsware teams

Our US readers can now get their hands onto HTC’s latest PocketPC devices:

HTC Advantage X7510
This device hasn’t been made available state-side due to unspecified legal issues regarding the QualComm processor used. Nevertheless, two importers now offer the device for 1300$ – links below:
Dynamism
On The Go Solutions

HTC Touch Diamond
HTC’s Touch Diamond has been all over the news due to the lack of quad-band capability: European Touch Diamonds will have issues getting 3G coverage. Nevertheless, CompUSA imports the device and sells it for about 800$ a pop…

In case anyone of you has a horror story or interesting bit of news about the merchants mentioned above, please talk back!

I always preferred my organizers to dedicated media players due to the power of a file-based interface(aka files and folders rather than artists and albums). FlipSide plans to bring album-based navigation to the PocketPC – can it stack up?

After starting FlipSide, the program displays a list of albums. Stuff that can’t be catalogized is put into a “default” folder:

Tapping an album cover twice opens a tracklist:

The currently-playing track is shown at the bottom of the screen. The program supports shuffle mode and custom playlists. Other features such as a volume boost or an equalizer are not available.

Clicking “Get Cover” analyzes the currently-selected batch of MP3 files and fetches a matching cover from the internet. I have tested this with a few albums and was successful: the fetch process happens in the background and takes about one minute:

Clicking Extra Info opens a web site about the artist:

This 138KB program is an excellent example of the power of the .NET CF and a feature-rich operating system. Version 1.03 worked flawlessly on my ipaq rx4240 using the .NET CF 2 version deployed by Visual Studio..

FlipSide is an excellent tool for people wanting to add a bit of “visual oomph” to their MP3 collection. It’s unique internet features stand out from the crowd of rather boring(but feature-packed) media players: the price of 20$ is acceptable…